Teen testifies that registered sex offender who lived nearby invited her into truck, trailer and molested her

A teen girl told a jury Monday that a man who lived in an adjacent trailer park invited her into his truck, then later his home, and molested her in 2016.

The alleged victim, who is now 16, testified on the opening day of the jury trial for Ronald E. Throne II, 31, of Lawrence.

Throne, a registered sex offender from a previous conviction, allegedly molested the girl in late May 2016, when she was 15, according to charges against him in Douglas County District Court. He was charged in June 2016, with additional counts added in October 2016.

Throne is now charged with six counts in all against the same victim: two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, one count of electronic solicitation of a child, one count of indecent liberties with a child, one count of lewd and lascivious behavior, all felonies, and one count of promoting obscenity to a minor, a misdemeanor.

Kansas Bureau of Investigation offender registry

Ronald E. Throne II

The day the crimes occurred, the girl had come home from school to her neighborhood, where a number of people were outside cleaning up debris and limbs from a storm, she said.

According to her testimony:

Throne, whom she knew, invited her inside his pickup truck to get out of a light rain that was falling. The two were parked in the pickup for a while; then Throne drove to his trailer where they got into another pickup of his, then drove to another part of the neighborhood to help someone pull a car out of a ditch.

He molested her multiple times in one or both of the pickups, but she said she could not remember which truck they were in each time.

Before any of the touching occurred, he asked how old she was and she told him 15.

When asked — by both prosecutor Alice Walker and Throne’s appointed attorney Forrest Lowry — why she did not try to leave or run home instead of getting into the second truck, the girl said when she asked if she could leave Throne told her no, and she believed the truck doors were locked. Also, she said, “I was scared,” and, “He said don’t tell anybody about this.”

Later that evening, the girl, her younger sister and another male they knew went to Throne’s trailer to play video games.

The girl did not tell her mother what had occurred earlier — “I was scared of what would happen,” she said — and her mother gave permission.

While at Throne’s trailer, he again molested her while the others were fixated on the loud, violent video game.

The plan had been for the girl and her sister to spend the night at Throne’s trailer, but she feigned illness to go home early and suggested that her mom go get her sister, too, which she did.

The girl said that she’d had Throne’s number in her phone for a few days under the name “my new friend.”

Throne is in custody at the Douglas County jail. His trial is scheduled to last through Thursday in the courtroom of Judge Kay Huff.

Throne’s previous sex offense conviction was in 2007 in Crawford County, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation offender registry. According to the KBI, he was convicted of two counts of aggravated indecent solicitation of an 11-year-old child to commit a sex act, a felony, which occurred in 2006.

According to the Kansas Department of Corrections, Throne’s sentence in that case expired in 2014.